Read & Revolt: Flint Water Crisis and Disposable Lives

For the next discussion we will be reading “Democracy, Disposability, and the Flint Water Crisis”, which is an essay from the blog Third Coast Conspiracy, which produces anti-capitalist & anti-state analysis about Michigan.

In this text they discuss the history of Flint’s de-industrialization, the Flint water crisis, and draw conclusions about anti-blackness and premature death in the contemporary world.

You can pick up a free copy the text at Boxcar Books for two weeks prior to its discussion, or read it online: https://thirdcoastconspiracy.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/democracy-disposability-and-the-flint-water-crisis/

This is the first in a series of discussions we will have about anti-blackness throughout September and October. By sharpening our ideas, we hope to better fight against racism and this monstrous society that it is deeply woven into.The readings will be as follows:

9/5 – “Democracy, Disposability, and the Flint Water Crisis” by Third Coast Conspiracy

9/19 – “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance” by bell hooks

The second chapter of Black Looks: Race and Representation. This chapter analyzes how blackness is viewed by white people as being more intense, authentic, and therefore threatening. A commodified form of blackness is sought after because it is seen as more pleasurable.

10/3 – “A Very Short Introduction to Afro-Pessimism” by Isidore

The preface of the book “Afro-Pessimism: An Introduction.” Afro-pessimism is a theoretical tendency that centers anti-blackness as opposed to white supremacy itself, and explores how the concept of the human is made in antithesis to that of the slave. These theorists re-examine the definition of slavery and the social death that accompanies it in order to demonstrate that this society is structured by the social death of black people, that blackness is defined in this way, and that it is impossible to eliminate this social death without destroying the foundations of this society

10/17 – “The Dragon and the Hydra” by Russell Maroon Shoatz

A historical overview of decentralized organizational methods of resistance, including that of maroon societies.

Read & Revolt is a discussion group seeking to analyze this society and the potential for liberation from an anarchist perspective. We meet the first and third Tuesday of every month at Boxcar Books, from 7 – 9 PM, to discuss readings collectively decided upon beforehand.

https://readandrevolt.noblogs.org